Oslo 2.0

After the rather dismal failure that was yesterday, I spent the evening trying to get my bearings on the city, what it had to offer, and how I could make the next day better.  One of the first things I considered was the Oslo Pass - 230 kr for free unlimited public transit, and free entry to a number of museums.  After pricing out my other options, that seemed the way to go, so I stopped by the Oslo central station and purchased one.

From there, I took a bus to Bygdøy, a peninsula near Oslo that contains several museums.  Upon arriving, I stopped first at the Norwegian Folk Museum.  The museum is dedicated to preserving Norwegian culture, and seemed to function in much the same capacity as the Danish National Museum and Den Gamle By, combined.  It contained both indoor and outdoor exhibits, highlighting Norwegian cultural history and architectural styles.  On my way out, I ran into Arnell again, who had just come from the Viking Ship Museum, which was where I was headed next.

The best-preserved ship

The Viking Ship Museum was a small, but interesting exhibit featuring three Viking ships in various states of preservation.  One had been sunk such that it remained covered with soil and was almost perfectly preserved, and another had been almost completely destroyed - the third lay somewhere in the middle.  Each of these ships was mounted in a wing of the museum, while along the walls were cases with artifacts found in the ships, and explanations of the shipbuilding techniques used and the long history of Norwegian seafaring.

I decided to head back to Oslo by way of the public transit ferry, but to waste time while waiting for the next to arrive I headed into the Kon-Tiki museum - dedicated to preserving the artifacts and history related to Thor Heyerdahl's long-distance raft trips across open ocean. The museum was so interesting, however, I stayed far longer than anticipated. Among other things, Thor Heyerdahl's explorations were responsible for touching off the Easter Island and "tiki" crazes half a century ago.  He also brought public attention to ocean pollution, and proved that it was possible for Native American settlers to get to Polynesia and for ancient Egyptians to get to America with the skills, techniques, and materials available to them at the time.

Bouldering this was fun!

I hopped a ferry back to Oslo, and got on another one headed out to the islands in the fjord.  I ended up on Hovedøya, and had noticed coming in some very nice looking rock formations on the southern coast of the island.  After making the short trek to that side, I realized that the cliffs and rocks would make for great bouldering.  Emptying my pockets into my daypack, I decided it would be fun to try to work my way entirely around the island in this manner.  It took a few hours, but was amazingly fun and worthwhile.  I think an emphasis on nature might be the best way to go about appreciating Norway.  I've noticed this during my runs as well - about 7 minutes west of the hostel, the stream has a very nice waterfall - it breaks up the monotony of a run rather nicely.

I need to get to sleep, because if I can't get a train to Bergen tomorrow, I'll just have to go to Sweden early - and that'd be a real shame.